A million genomes
The All of Us project to decode the DNA of a million people starts
Ksenia Malysheva, Naked Science
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received $28.6 million for the construction of three genetic data processing centers. In these centers, DNA will be isolated from tissue samples donated by volunteers participating in the All of Us project, sequenced and the results will be entered into a database.
The project will involve specialists from several major American universities – Baylor College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Texas, Washington and Cambridge Universities. It is planned that a million people will be involved in the study. 110 thousand volunteers have registered in the program, of which 60 thousand have already passed the main stage of data collection.
The study participants not only provide biomaterials for DNA isolation, but also fill out questionnaires with questions about their health and lifestyle. Participation in the program is not limited to a single delivery of biomaterials: volunteers will be required to take urine and blood tests at certain intervals, provide fitness tracker data and other information.
"15 years have passed since the end of the Human Genome project. Now we are embarking on an equally large-scale project that will collect a huge amount of genetic information. The database that we will create will bring big breakthroughs in science closer and help in the fight for the health of future generations," the NIH press release quotes the head of the organization Francis Collins.
"One of our main tasks is to ensure diversity. The All of Us program will be attended by representatives of social groups about which researchers currently have little data – they rarely take part in genetic and medical research," says Eric Dishman, director of the program.
The results of genetic research will be entered into the database without the personal data of the volunteers, but then they will be able to get information about their own DNA. The primary data sets will consist of information about 59 genes, variants of which are associated with the risk of developing diseases (ACMG 59), as well as the results of a pharmacogenomic study on the effect of single-nucleotide polymorphisms on the toxicity and effectiveness of drugs (today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes the dependence of the effectiveness of about 100 drugs drugs from genetic characteristics). Later, the participants of the program will also receive information about the origin of their ancestors.
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